"OUT OF FEAR I BURIED THE MONEY."

Homily for August 30^th, 2014: Matt. 25:14-30.

          The sums entrusted to each servant were huge. Our version speaks of “talents.” In Jesus’ world a talent was a sum of money, the largest there was, something like a million dollars today. This tells us something crucial about the man going on a journey. He is not a bean counter. On his return from a long absence, he praises the first two servants for doubling the sums entrusted to them.

The people hearing the story now expect that the third servant will also receive generous treatment. How shocking, therefore, to find the man not praised but rebuked as a “wicked, lazy servant.” “Out of fear,” the third servant explains, I kept your money safe. Here it is back. It is this fear which the parable condemns.  

          How often Jesus tells his followers, “Do not be afraid.” The master in Jesus’ parable rewards the first two servants not for the money they gained, but for their trust. He rebukes and banishes the third servant for lack of trust. The parable is about the one thing necessary: trust in the Lord who gives us his gifts not according to our deserving but according to his boundless generosity.

          Do you want to be certain that your heart will never be wounded as you journey through life? Then be sure to guard your heart carefully. Never give it away, and certainly never wear your heart on your sleeve. If you do that, however, your heart will shrink. The capacity to love is not diminished through use. It grows.    

“Out of fear ... I buried your talent in the ground,” the third servant says. Jesus came to cast out fear. To escape condemnation we don’t need to establish a good conduct record in some heavenly book – a row of gold stars representing our sacrifices and good works. Thinking we must do that is “not believing in the name of God’s only Son.” His name is synonymous with mercy, generosity, and love. Escaping condemnation, being saved, means one thing only: trusting him. It is as simple as that.

We don’t need to negotiate with God. We don’t need to con him into being lenient. We couldn’t do that even if we tried, for God is lenient already. He invites us to trust him. That is all.   

""HE MUST INCREASE, I MUST DECREASE."

Homily for August 29^th, 2014: St. John the Baptist

Not quite 56 years ago, on the afternoon of October 28^th, 1958, an elderly cardinal named Angelo Roncalli was elected Bishop of Rome. When he was asked what name he would take as Pope, he replied: AI will be called John.@ It was the first of many surprises. There had not been a pope of that name for over six hundred years. Almost all of them had short pontificates, John told his electors. He was then just short of 77. He would die only four and a half years later, on the day after Pentecost 1963.

He loved the name John, the new Pope said, because it had been borne by the two men in the gospels who were closest to Jesus: John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord and shed his blood in witness to the One he proclaimed; and John the Evangelist, called throughout the gospel which bears his name Athe disciple whom Jesus loved.@

The name John means, AGod is gracious,@ or AGod has given grace.@ The name was singularly appropriate for the man we know as John the Baptist. He was commissioned even before his birth to proclaim the One who would give God a human face, and a human voice: Jesus Christ.

God called each of us in our mother=s womb. He fashioned us in his own image, as creatures made for love: to praise, worship, and serve God here on earth, and to be happy with him forever in heaven. Fulfilling that destiny, given to us not just at birth but at our conception, means heeding the words which today=s saint, John the Baptist, spoke about Jesus: AHe must increase, I must decrease@ (John 3:3).

Those are the most important words which St. John the Baptist ever spoke. In just six words they sum up the whole life of Christian discipleship. Imprint those words on your mind, your heart, your soul. Resolve today to try to make them a reality in daily life. Those who do that find that they have discovered the key to happiness, to fulfillment, and to peace. AHe must increase, I must decrease.@

ST. AUGUSTINE

Homily for August 28^th, 2014: Memorial of St. Augustine

          We celebrate today with joy one of the great men of the ancient Church: St. Augustine. Born in North Africa in 354 to a pagan father and the devout Christian mother, Monica, whom we celebrated yesterday, Augustine was 33 before he was baptized by the great bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose. Augustine tells the story of his dramatic conversion in his Confessions.

          Augustine was 33 and on the point of accepting Christian faith, and asking for baptism. Only his inability to master his strong sexual desires held him back. Sitting on a summer day in the garden of his house, Augustine uttered an agonized prayer for purity. “How long, O Lord, how long will I hear tomorrow, and again tomorrow? Why not now? Why can there not be an end to my impurity right now?”

          All at once Augustine heard a child’s voice from a neighboring house saying over and over the Latin words, Tolle, lege. They may have been merely a child’s game, like “Eeny, Meeney, Miney, Moe.” But Augustine took them literally: “Take up and read.”  Seizing the scroll he had been reading, which contained Paul’s letter to the Romans, Augustine’s eyes fell on the words: “Let us cast off deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us live honorably as in daylight; not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust ... Rather put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”

          “The very instant I finished that sentence,” Augustine writes, “light flooded my heart, and every shadow of doubt disappeared.” He was baptized by Ambrose the following Easter.

          He died at on this day 430, at age 75 and having been bishop of Hippo in North Africa for 35 years. He had dictated to scribes millions of words about the faith which have been a rich source of Catholic theologians ever since. The best known of these words is a single sentence, written out of Augustine’s own life experience. It still speaks to us over 1500 years later:  “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

"DO NOT CONFORM YOURSELVES TO THIS AGE."

Homily for the  22^nd Sunday in Ordinary time, Year A. Jer.20:7-9; Rom.12:1-2;      

       Matt.16:21-27.

     “Do not conform yourselves to this age,” Paul tells us in our second reading. What does he mean? You can see what he means in the morning newspaper, and on the evening news on television. He is telling us not to live by the standards of the world around us. 

          Today’s world is very different from Paul’s. Yet people have not really changed all that much. Now, as then, the smart person looks after Number One; tries to get ahead by the deft use of thumbs and elbows; and reacts to rebuffs and injuries with the chip-on-the-shoulder slogan: “Don’t get mad, get even.” With his words, “Do not conform yourselves to this age,” Paul is telling us that if we are serious about wanting to be friends and followers of Jesus Christ, we must follow different standards.
           There is not one of us here today who has not felt the downward pull of the world’s egotism and self-centeredness. Jesus felt that downward pull himself. At the beginning of his public ministry he was tempted to purchase popular success by various short-cuts and sensational tricks. “Turn stones into bread,” the Tempter told him. “Throw yourself down from the Temple – God will look after you.” (cf. Mt. 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13). In today’s gospel Jesus is tempted again. He is starting on the final stage of his journey. It will take him up to Jerusalem, to death. Once again, as at the beginning, he feels the downward pull of this world’s standards, trying to turn him aside from the right way. 
          Jesus is hurt that the temptation comes this time from the friend who has just confessed that Jesus is God’s anointed servant and Son, the long-awaited Messiah. In response to this declaration of faith, the Lord has just given his friend Simon the new name “Peter the Rock,” as we heard in last week’s gospel. With this name Jesus bestowed on Peter the position of leadership in the Church that was yet to be. And now here is Peter, of all people, trying to turn Jesus aside from his Father’s will and call by responding to Jesus’ prediction of his passion and death: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 
         Peter was speaking (to use Paul’s terminology from our second reading) from a mind still conformed to this age. We see how keenly Jesus felt the downward pull of temptation in Peter’s words by the harshness of Jesus’ response: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” 
         Thinking as God does means, Paul says in the second reading, being “transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” That transformation begins here in the liturgy, which is the gathering of God’s people for public prayer. Here we do what Paul tells us to do in the second reading. We “offer our bodies” (Paul’s word for our selves: all that we are and have, sin excluded) “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, [our] spiritual worship.” 
         The renewal of our minds starts at the table of the word, as we listen to the call, not of the world’s standards, but of God’s. The world drags us down. God pulls us up. In our first reading we heard the upward pull of Jeremiah’s words. He protests that God has “duped” him into being a spokesman for the Lord. The role of prophet has cost Jeremiah scorn and repudiation by his own people. Yet deep in his heart, Jeremiah knows that he can do no other. He must speak for God. 
        We feel the upward pull of Jesus’ words in the gospel: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If ever a man had the right to speak those words, it is Jesus Christ. They tell us what, deep in our hearts, we already know. The only way to preserve all that we hold most dear, even life itself, it to yield everything to Jesus Christ. 
        Uplifted by God’s holy word, we offer at the table of his sacrament the living sacrifice of our spiritual worship. In so doing we receive back far more than we offer: the very body and blood of our divine Master, who died that we might live. He, Jesus, is the one who transforms us by the renewal of our minds. He is the one who sends us forth from these twin tables of his word and sacrament into the rough and tumble of life, enlightened and empowered by his Holy Spirit so that we can do what Paul tells us to do in the second reading: to “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”; and what Jesus tells us to do in the gospel: to lose our lives in service of Him who always gives back to us so much more than we can ever give to Him. 
        Do we really believe that? Aren’t we often afraid of losing our lives for Jesus Christ? Our now retired Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, addressed this fear at the end of his homily at the Mass for the inauguration of his pastoral ministry on April 24^th, 2005. The Pope addressed his words especially to young people. Here is what he said:
         “Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that he might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.”

ST. MONICA

Homily for August 27^th, 2014: St. Monica

          The opening prayer for today’s celebration of St. Monica speaks about her “motherly tears for the conversion of her son Augustine.” He was a brilliant boy. But into his 30s he was unable to accept the Christian faith, despite his mother’s fervent prayers and tears. Monica is said to have asked an old bishop whether her son would ever accept baptism. “It is impossible,” the old man reassured her, “that the son of so many prayers and tears should perish.” Augustine’s dramatic conversion at age 33 caused his mother to “leap for joy,” Augustine tells us in his Confessions. 

In another passage in that book, Augustine recounts a memorable conversation with his mother toward her life’s end. “We talked together in deep joy,” Augustine writes, “and forgetting the things that were behind and looking forward to those that were before, we were discussing in the presence of Truth, who you are [O Lord], what the eternal life of the saints could be like, which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man. But with the mouth of our heart we panted for the high waters of your fountain, the fountain of the life which is with you. ... And my mother said, ‘Son, for my own part I no longer find joy in anything in this world. ... One thing there was, for which I desired to remain still a little longer in this life, that I should see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This God has granted me in superabundance. What then am I doing here?’” 

          A few days later Monica fell ill. “Here you will bury your mother,” she said. “Lay this body wherever it may be. This only I ask of you, that you should remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Augustine was able to restrain his grief at his mother’s funeral and burial shortly thereafter; but his tears flowed copiously later on. 

          What a mother! And what a beautiful and holy death! May the Lord grant each of us such a death, when the Lord sends his angel to call us home!

"YOU HAVE NEGLECTED THE WEIGHTIER THINGS OF THE LAW."

Homily for August 26^th, 2014: Matthew 23:23-26.

          An elderly monk, Father Benedict, was returning to his monastery from a journey. With him was a young novice, Brother Ardens. It had been raining and the road was muddy. When they came to a dip in the road still covered with water, they found a beautiful young girl standing there afraid to proceed, lest her long dress be soiled. “Come, dear,” Father Benedict said, when he saw her predicament. “I’ll carry you.” Then he picked the girl up in his arms and carried her across. She thanked him, and the two monks walked on in silence.

          When they reached the monastery, Brother Ardens felt he had to say something about the incident he had witnessed. “Monks are supposed to keep away from women, especially from beautiful young girls. How could you pick up in your arms that girl we met on the road?”

          “Dear Brother Ardens,” the older monk replied, “I put that girl down as soon as we reached dry ground. You have carried her in your thoughts right into the monastery.”  

          The young novice was like the scribes and Pharisees in the gospel reading we have just heard: zealous, as many young people are, and determined to see all the rules and regulations carefully observed. The ardent young monk never realized that this could mean failing in something even more important: helping someone in need.

          Behind each of the Ten Commandments is the highest law of all, charity: active, generous and sacrificial service – to God, and to others.

"WOE TO YOU, HYPOCRITES."

Homily for August 25^th, 2013: Matt. 23:13.22.

          Today’s gospel gives us the first three of the seven woes pronounced by Jesus against those who refuse to accept him and his message. They correspond to the blessings or Beatitudes spoken by Jesus in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:3-12). 

          The scribes and Pharisees against whom Jesus pronounces these woes are the interpreters and teachers of God’s law, the Ten Commandments. Nowhere does Jesus criticize, let alone reject, God’s law. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets,” Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. “I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Mt. 5:17).

          What Jesus attacks is the gaping contrast between what those against whom he pronounces his woes teach, and how they themselves behave. The first woe is directed against those who do not enter the kingdom of heaven because they have closed their minds and hearts against him. "You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men." Even worse, Jesus says, are their attacks against those who are open to Jesus’ person and message. ""You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter."

          The woe against those who “traverse sea and land to make one convert” is a back-handed compliment to the missionary zeal of those who take their treasured Jewish faith to non-Jews. Paul would do just this with his new Christian faith. What Jesus condemns is the narrow, legalistic version of Jewish faith which they propagate. This is also the basis of the woe against people who take oaths with formulas that allow them to wriggle out of what they have sworn to.

          Does all that belong to a bygone age? Don’t you believe it! The yawning gap between what we claim to believe and how we actually behave remains a danger for us Catholics today. As the old saying has it: “What you are speaks so loud, that I cannot hear what you say.”

We pray in this Mass that this yawning gap may be closed through our daily prayer: "Not what I want, Lord, but what you want.”